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Home Flight Training CRFI | Learn what a CRFI is in Canada?

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CRFI | Learn what a CRFI is in Canada?

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March 20, 2022 Support Canadian Flt Trainers

Category: Flight Training

The CRFI, or Canadian Runway Friction Index is a scale from 0 to 1 indicating how slippery
a runway is. Information is adapted from the Aeronautical Information Manual which is
freely available online. This material is also used in our PPL and CPL Online Ground school
courses.

Reduced Runway Coefficients of Friction and Aircraft

Performance
The accelerate-stop distance, landing distance and crosswind limitations (if applicable)
contained in the aircraft flight manual (AFM) are demonstrated in accordance with
specified performance criteria on runways that are bare, dry, and that have high surface
friction characteristics. Unless some factor has been applied, these distances are only valid
under similar runway conditions. Whenever a contaminant—such as water, snow or ice—is
introduced to the runway surface, the effective coefficient of friction between the aircraft
tire and runway is substantially reduced.

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The stop portion of the accelerate-stop distance will increase, the landing distance will
increase and a crosswind may present directional control difficulties. The problem has
to identify, with some accuracy, the effect that the contaminant has had on reducing
been
the runway coefficient of friction and to provide meaningful information to the pilot, e.g.
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how much more runway is needed to stop and what maximum crosswind can be accepted.
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Description of CRFI Values
The decelerometer is an instrument mounted inROC-A
a test Exams
vehicle that measures the
The instrument
decelerating forces acting on the vehicle when the brakes are applied. Loginis

graduated in increments from 0 to 1, the highestPilot Shop being equivalent to the

number
theoretical maximum decelerating capability of the vehicle on a dry surface. These
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numbers are referred to as the CRFI. It is evident that small numbers represent low
braking coefficients of friction while numbers on the order of 0.8 and above indicate the
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braking coefficients to be expected on dry runways.

The brakes are applied on the test vehicle at 300-m (1 000-ft) intervals along the runway
within a distance of 10 m (30 ft) from each side of the runway centreline at that distance
from the centreline where the majority of aircraft operations take place at each given site.
The readings taken are averaged and reported as the CRFI number.

Application of CRFI

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 This chart provides information for calculating headwind and crosswind components. The
vertical lines indicate the recommended maximum crosswind component for reported
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CRFI.

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Example: CYOW CRFI 07/25 -4C .30 1201191200 Tower Wind 110° 20 kt.

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The wind is 40° off the runway heading and produces a headwind
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component of 15 kt and
a crosswind component of 13 kt. The recommended minimum CRFI for a 13-kt crosswind
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component is .35.
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Pilot
A takeoff or landing with a CRFI of .3 could result Shop
in uncontrollable drifting and yawing.
The CRFI depends on the surface type, as shown in Table 4a. It should be noted that:
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the CRFI values given in Table 4a are applicable to all temperatures. Extensive
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measurements have shown that there is no correlation between the CRFI and the
surface temperature. The case where the surface temperature is just at the melting
point (i.e. about 0°C) may be an exception, as a water film may form from surface
melting, which could induce slippery conditions with CRFIs less than those in Table
4a.

the CRFI may span a range of values for various reasons, such as variations in
texture among surfaces within a given surface class. The expected maximum and
minimum CRFIs for various surfaces are listed in Table 4b. Note that these values are
based on a combination of analyses of extensive measurements and sound
engineering judgment.
the largest range in CRFI is to be expected for a thin layer (3 mm or less in
thickness) of dry snow on pavement (Table 4a). This variation may occur due to: (i)
non-uniform snow coverage; and/or (ii) the tires breaking through the thin layer. In
either case, the surface presented to the aircraft may range from snow to pavement.

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of

Transport (2021) This information has been reproduced with the permission of
Transport Canada.

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